Hurricane Katrina was two years ago today. It was also my cat’s fifth birthday. Today he is seven. He has lost two fangs in the intervening time and Louisiana has lost two fangs as well. I have lost a molar to Katrina-related family tragedy, still unresolved, but I have gained four fangs by rejecting Reeducation. … More Fangs
Via Liprap, New Orleans City Council member Shelley Midura’s letter to George W. Bush, on the occasion of his visit to new Orleans for the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina: August 28, 2007 Dear Mr. President: Thank you for visiting New Orleans for the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the worst federal levee-failure disaster in … More Shelley Midura
I Z: What are the characteristics of “Our America” in the famous essay by the same title? Student: Well, I understand that the author is referring to the multicultural, intellectual and spiritual Latin America as opposed to the industrial, utilitarian, and Anglo-Saxon United States. But when you actually read the essay this is not so … More Illuminations
In her article on the semiotics of guilt in Garro’s work, Ana Bundgard asserts that falling into guilt is transgression and rupture, a necessary evil for anyone who aspires to status as subject. By taking on the role of writer, Lelinca carries a burden of guilt that represents rupture from the paradise of the patriarchal … More Ana Bundgard
Cross posted at Seminario Permanente de Teoría y Crítica: In [a book] [a critic] distinguishes between silencing, a condition imposed from outside, and silence freely chosen. She further suggests that the latter can take two forms: using silence as a weapon or breaking silence with hipocrisy. The interplay between silencing and silence . . . … More Elena Garro
Mychal Bell is being sentenced in Jena September 20th. Color of Change is organizing a rally in support of him that day (the text of their e-mail follows). I cannot go because Thursday is a major teaching day for me, but I would otherwise. It seems they expect many people to be coming in from … More Jena, LA
This gossip is ten years old, but I only recently learned it – through Oso Raro. “The experience that matters to me most — it’s why I’m an academic — is this enormous pleasure and intensity of working and thinking with people,” she says in an interview here. “And to me that’s pleasurable, it’s sexy, … More Jane Gallop
FIRST HEAD And the theme of this weekend is, it seems, Against Artificial Limits. Now I am in a restaurant in a town not my own, because there is a café in this town I had been eyeing as a good writing cafe. I finally decided to try it out, and the experiment failed. Although … More Two-Headed Post
MOSTLY MUSIC Now it is the weekend, so we will sing. This is Julio Jaramillo on Interrogación and it is a beautiful performance. I would like to see the movie from which it comes. Here Jaramillo’s band wins dinner on the house in Cali, Colombia for their singing – a dinner they really need, too. … More J’ai faim. J’ai soif. Le monde vieillit et je ne l’accompagne pas.
I Do you get a huge rush when you realize, in the text you are composing, that the next paragraph will be your last? Is this moment thrilling to you because you are now about to see the work go through its penultimate metamorphosis, break free from the stone from which it has been carved, … More Tao Te Ching
coldhearted scientist وداد 